


Psych 101

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [11]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Established Relationship, Homophobia, Immortal Found Family, M/M, Post-Canon, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Protective Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Racism, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:00:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27502708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Joe doesn’t back down, and he shouldn’t.Prompt: Defiance
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 6
Kudos: 187





	Psych 101

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and none of them are necessarily connected to each other.

Copley had been the one to tell Nile about what Nicky and Joe had done to the team that had brought them in for Merrick. Mostly he’d just been stunned that they’d actually killed everyone in the back of that armored vehicle with their hands tied and their ankles chained. And he’d compared the footage from when they’d been caught to the bloodstains when they’d gotten out and he’d said that, as far as he could tell, they’d done it without getting hurt again themselves.

“I have no idea how they did it. And they didn’t try again on the plane even though I was right there and they had every reason to want to do damage then,” Copley had mused to her. She got the feeling that he really wanted to ask either of the men, to satisfy this curiosity, but was also aware that it would probably be a few years before he was in good enough standing with those two to get an answer.

Joe was defensive and authoritative towards him while Nicky was cold silence and Nile figured it would take _a lot_ of missions for that to change.

It pretty much slipped from Nile’s mind until a few weeks later when Nile’s mind was wandering while she sat in front of Joe on the floor, his fingers working her hair into a new braid she’d found that she wanted to try and Joe had been ecstatic to help her out. He mentioned that it had been a long time since any of them had long hair and he missed helping them get their hair mission ready. And none of them had hair like hers and he’d been so excited to be trying new things.

But she’d remembered that she’d been a little curious about the whole “kill everyone in the armored truck” thing and asked.

“They brought it upon themselves, really,” Joe replied passively.

“Because they took you?” Nile asked, taking a guess.

Joe scoffed though he was definitely amused. “Hardly. I mean, they likely would have died on our way out but they could have avoided it completely if they weren’t so juvenile.”

Nicky chuckled quietly from where he was sitting beside Joe reading. “I believe they were children, infants even.”

Nile had given Andy a questioning look, the woman sitting in an armchair just a little off to Nile’s left so she could give the look and not risk messing with Joe’s work.

Andy noticed the look and grinned before replying simply, “Homophobes. They never learn.”

And Nile didn’t need any more explanation than that.

Neither Joe nor Nicky had anything approaching shame about expressing they were in a relationship, not that Nile thought they should. And if the looks they gave each other or the casual touches they rarely seemed aware of doing weren’t clue enough that they weren’t just best buds, the way they talked about and to each other wasn’t adjusted for company. They didn’t let others dictate their relationship.

Though having the longest standing relationship in the world by a matter of centuries probably gave them a level of confidence that unfortunately all relationships that weren’t the “socially normal” man and woman had a harder time finding.

More than anything, Nile had found herself becoming more curious about how Joe and Nicky had gone from opposing sides in the Crusades having outright killed each other to being who they were now. That had to be a damn good story. But she also wanted to know them a little better just in general before asking about it.

And she wanted to be able to know when either Joe or Nicky were messing with her as they had a tendency to do. Andy had told her it wasn’t just with Nile though, that they even did that with Andy about times before they met or when they were reporting on when they worked separately.

But that was her introduction to how Joe didn’t back down from ignorance and Nicky didn’t dismiss anyone speaking against the love of his life. And while Nile had seen Nicky dismiss people spouting stupidity like that, the level at which he could easily ignore people being practically an insult in itself, she noticed how so often Joe confronting the people talking usually resulted in things being said to Joe that got Nicky involved.

And she didn’t think there were many people who could actually win a verbal battle against those two together, let alone if it came to blows.

The few times she’d seen those sorts of encounters, what had to be most amusing was how Andy would stand back and watch with a satisfied look on her face, only every once in a while giving a scathing comment of her own. It wasn’t until one time that some guy just wouldn’t back down and was getting more aggressive that Nile noticed that Andy stayed back to watch for an attack, her hand around her side where she had a knife stashed, ready to step in and take care of any threat, no matter that Joe and Nicky were perfectly capable.

Nile quickly understood how it wasn’t about protecting each other because they needed it but because it was just what they did, because they cared about each other. It wasn’t one of them trying to say another was weak but just that they were willing to step up for each other, no matter that any injuries done to Andy would actually stick around. It didn’t change how much she cared.

She’d gotten so used to how things were that she hadn’t really considered that they’d become that way for a reason. Not so much that Joe stuck up for what he believed in especially how that extended to Nicky, but more for there actually being a reason Nicky didn’t really get involved unless the attack was directed at Joe.

Nile’s mom had once told her that passionate people made for the best and worst targets for hatred and the difference could simply be if their coffee had kicked in.

They were heading back to their safe house from dinner, all deciding to eat out rather than have one of them cook. They’d finished the mission they’d been in the city for two days ago and they were going to figure out where they here heading next, Nile expecting Nicky to request they just take a few easy weeks as he’d been pressing for increasingly over the past month. She didn’t know if there was a particular reason for him asking but she wouldn’t mind. They hadn’t really slowed down since Merrick’s and she just knew there was plenty of shit that happened there that they all seemed to be avoiding, herself included.

Nile was walking next to Nicky and Joe as Andy was a few steps ahead of them, just as involved with the conversation but having all four of them in line would have spanned the entire sidewalk and that was rude. Joe was holding Nicky’s hand as they walked, often talking expressively and Nicky’s hand being pulled along for the story. Nicky looked amused and after he’d pulled his hand away to go up and speak quietly with Andy for a moment he’d returned his hand to Joe’s so he definitely didn’t mind.

That was what ultimately got the attention of half a dozen guys walking by, talking loudly and likely already a few drinks in to the night. But Nile watched as one noticed Joe and Nicky’s linked hands and he nudged at one of the others and pointed it out to him and soon all of them were calling out crude insults to the couple.

Nicky leaned over toward Joe and said something to him too low for Nile to hear, Joe not really giving a response to indicate what t had been.

Andy had already slowed her own pace so she was just a little closer to the others.

“Why does it always gotta be the fucking cock suckers? Why couldn’t it be the chicks all hot for each other? That I wouldn’t mind getting an eye full of,” the one who had first noticed them declared and Nile was suddenly very aware of the knife she had in her boot and how good she had gotten about drawing it quickly and smoothly. The rest of the group burst out in a wave of agreement and even a few catcalls toward Andy and Nile.

“Like anyone could see any of you and still feel sexually aroused,” Nile shot back before even considering trying to stay out of it. What could she say? She’d never been one to really buy into just dismissing people saying stuff like this. It wasn’t right and they shouldn’t get away with it by not being challenged at the very least.

The man who’d spoken looked furious, which was to be expected. People who put others down simply because of who they loved usually didn’t take well to being stood up to.

“Shut up, bitch. You don’t see how wrong that is, you’re just as bad as them.”

Joe stepped closer to the man, letting go of Nicky’s hand to do so. “Continue speaking as you are and you will not get a chance to regret it.”

“What, are you gonna hurt us, faggot?”

“If I must. I would prefer not to, though. As my Nicky has reminded me, that is greatly frowned upon and will likely mean we can’t come back here for a long time. And I really do hate not being allowed to go back somewhere because of something like your refusal to move beyond infantile fears.”

The man stepped away from his friends and crowded close to Joe. And he was a tall man, too, actually standing about two inches taller than Joe so it could have been intimidating if he weren’t in the face of one of the oldest warriors on the planet.

And it really didn’t matter in the least to Joe, who just looked up at the man, Nile recognizing the shift in his posture that indicated he was ready for the man to attack and he would handle it.

Nile kept most of her attention on the group, though. Only one of them didn’t seem all that invested in what was going on, the rest posturing up to seem more intimidating even as Andy and Nicky just gave them unaffected looks.

“Just back off, you fucking rag-head,” the man declared once he seemed to realize that Joe wasn’t going to back down by the guy’s posing and Nile wondered just how stupid this guy was that he couldn’t pick up on how outmatched he was. Even if Joe didn’t have centuries of fighting as an advantage, the vibe he was giving off was of someone dangerous, something that should have been easy to pick up on if they would just pay attention.

Ah, the wonders of the drunk, ignorant male ego.

Joe smirked up at the man. “You’re regressing. I only hope for the sake of anyone who knows you that you are not married and that you do not have any children in which to subject your ignorance and pointless hatred to. People who choose to hate as you do have no future and you will only see that upon your death bed. And yet I will go on living, deliriously happy with my love and I will not think of you again so what does your hatred matter? It is already a dated belief and the expiration date of those willing to listen is approaching fast. Your opinion will be obsolete.”

The man swung then, though it was pointless as Joe shifted his weight just enough that the fist passed by his face. The man stumbled forward with his own momentum and he rounded on Joe again, his face turning red with his rage.

He moved to charge back in but he’d put himself closer to Nicky and that was probably more of a mistake than starting this in the first place. Nicky had grabbed a hold of him and smoothly swept his legs out from under him almost before he’d started moving.

Three of the others had gotten over their shock and were moving in to help out, Andy intercepting one while Nicky stepped around the man on the ground and grabbed hold of one and twisted his arm to redirect him right into the last one.

Nile barely caught sight of the gun being drawn by the one that had seemed to want to remain uninvolved and she called out to Andy since she was closest. Nile saw the gun turn toward Joe and she grabbed his jacket and pulled him back just as the gun was fired. Andy knocked the gun away and punched the guy out, obviously breaking his nose.

Joe stumbled back into Nile with a quick shout of pain, his hands reaching up to cover his face so it hadn’t been a fatal shot and not dying in the middle of the sidewalk was apparently preferred with them.

Nicky turned back toward Joe and saw the blood swelling under his hands and dripping down his chin and then Andy was needing to keep him from killing any of them, letting him get at least one hit in on each of them before she wouldn’t let him strike them again.

Nile was focused on Joe, keeping a supporting hand on his back while she looked to see where he’d been hit. She couldn’t just be dismissive of it when they were in public like this, no matter how few people were around.

“Let me see, Joe,” she said for the sake of anyone who might still be aware or close enough to be paying attention.

Joe turned more toward her and lowered his hands enough to show that the bullet had went through his cheek at an angle, exiting just in front of his ear. She could see everything already knitting itself back together but she still winced at what had to still be painful.

“Let’s get you to the hospital,” she said and Joe nodded, letting her support him as they moved away. Nile checked behind her and watched Andy manage to convince Nicky not to kill the men and follow behind. They rounded the corner and Joe stood upright and spit out a mouthful of blood and possibly a few teeth but Nile didn’t pay that much attention.

“That hurt,” he noted before adding something in Arabic, his cheek almost completely healed now. Once it was done, he spit twice more just as Andy and Nicky caught up to them.

Nicky was already focused on Joe, wiping at the blood staining Joe’s face and beard to try and remove as much as possible, muttering in that old Italian he used, Joe’s amusement telling Nile that whatever was being said was likely not too flattering to the guys they’d left behind on the sidewalk.

“You good, Joe?” Andy asked and he gave her a quick thumbs up.

A minute or so later and Joe was clean enough to not draw attention, him remarking that this was why it was convenient that he let his black-haired beard stay grown out. Nicky was tense in a way Nile wasn’t used to seeing him and she was legitimately concerned that he’d just turn right around and go kill those guys. But Joe had already looped his arm in Nicky’s and started walking them toward the safe house. Nile followed along with Andy.

They made it about a block, Joe and Nicky talking in that blend of Arabic and Italian that Nicky had told her they’d mostly created for ease in the early years of knowing each other when they didn’t have a full language in common and then it had just become something that was uniquely theirs.

Nile was surprised when Andy spoke, not expecting it, “I’ll never tell Joe to not stick up for himself and Nicky against people like that. I’d do the same thing for them if they couldn’t. And I do the same for myself even though it doesn’t come up as often without Quynh here. But people like that don’t like it when their targets shoot back. Joe’s gotten hurt a lot because he fights back. And so has Nicky because he stops dismissing people as soon as they hurt Joe. But just because it doesn’t stick around doesn’t mean it doesn’t get to him sometimes. So we try to keep that to a minimum so he doesn’t have to deal with as much even though he would never complain about standing up to people like that. But ignorance like that…it can get exhausting to be on the receiving end of.”

Nile nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Don’t sweat it: I’ll be there too.”

Andy gave one of her small smiles that only came out for her family.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you liked it. Feel free to give some feedback in the form of kudos or a comment if you feel so inclined. I've been so thankful for the response these fics have been getting. You are all fantastic!!!!!! 
> 
> Random thing that bugs me that has nothing to do with the fic itself is that the title for the prompt for this day was Psych 101 when psych class levels start at 111. ^_^


End file.
